Kingdom Hearts II
Terms and lore
The simulated Twilight Town. A town made of data, built by the man called DiZ to look exactly like the real Twilight Town, and run from a machine in the basement of an old mansion outside it. Roxas lived there for the last days of a summer with three friends who had never been real. It kept him hidden while Naminé finished chaining Sora's memories back together. DiZ could reset it, freeze it, and wipe things out of it.
The pods. In the same mansion, a room of pods held three sleepers, Sora, Donald and Goofy, while Naminé worked. They woke with a year gone that none of them, or Jiminy, could account for.
Nobodies. Yen Sid's account: when someone with a strong heart and will becomes a Heartless, the empty shell left behind can go on acting with a will of its own, a thing that does not truly exist. They may seem to have feelings, but by his account this is a ruse. Unlike Heartless, they think and plan. The Organization's members say they remember what having a heart was like, "That's what makes us special." Axel and Roxas were never sure they had no heart at all.
Organization XIII. The Nobodies in black coats, led by Xemnas, whom Ansem the Wise named as the Organization's Superior. Their goal is Kingdom Hearts. By Axel's account, every Heartless slain with the Keyblade releases a captive heart, and that is what the Organization is after. It was using Sora to do its collecting.
Kingdom Hearts. The Organization's Kingdom Hearts hangs over their city like a heart-shaped moon. The hearts the Keyblade frees gather there, masterless, until they weave together. Saïx said that when it was complete, "we can truly, finally exist." Ansem the Wise tried to encode it as data with a machine, and the machine could not hold it.
Roxas and Sora. Riku told Sora the truth in the Organization's castle: "Roxas is your Nobody." Roxas could use the Keyblade because of it. He holds half of what Sora is, and for Sora to be whole he had to return. Naminé, whom DiZ said "wasn't born like other Nobodies," went into Kairi the same way Roxas went into Sora.
Ansem the Wise, and the one who took his name. Ansem the Wise ruled the town now called Hollow Bastion and studied the heart. His foremost apprentice was Xehanort. The apprentices stole his research and his name. The "Ansem" Sora fought at Kingdom Hearts was Xehanort's Heartless, who went around calling himself Ansem. Xemnas is Xehanort's Nobody. Mickey said that being around the one felt like being around the other.
Riku's face. Xehanort's Heartless invaded Riku's heart, and Riku beat it. But to fight Roxas in the realm of darkness he had to use the power of darkness, and it gave him Ansem's appearance. He kept it until the explosion of Ansem the Wise's machine restored his own form.
New pathways. Since the worlds were restored, they have new pathways between them, opened by gates. When a beam of light comes from the Keyblade, a gate is open. "Though the worlds may seem far apart and out of reach, they nonetheless remain connected by invisible ties. As do our hearts."
Radiant Garden. The town's first name, which Aerith, Leon and Cid remembered when a picture of it as it was first built came up on Ansem's computer. Merlin had never liked "Hollow Bastion."
The Cornerstone of Light. The stone beneath Queen Minnie's castle, kept in the Hall of the Cornerstone, which has always kept the castle safe from evil. Maleficent tried to reach it through a door into the past, before the castle was built, where it sat unguarded on a bare hill. That door was only open because Pete missed his old life as captain of a steamboat.
Maleficent's return. A bird brought Maleficent's tattered cloak to the three fairies in Yen Sid's tower. Remembering her was enough to bring her back.
Ansem's computer. Ansem the Wise's computer, behind his portrait in the castle, a copy of a system first built by a company called ENCOM, which he customised for running the town and for his private research. Inside it is a world of programs: Tron, a security program, and the Master Control Program, which took what was in the DTD, the dataspace where everything sensitive is kept. The password was made of the seven princesses' names. Tron then changed it: "You. my friends. are the new password."
Sea-salt ice cream. Ansem the Wise's favourite. Its name opened the computer in the Twilight Town mansion that led to the other Twilight Town and on toward the Organization's world.
The Organization's world. A dark city in the rain under a heart-shaped moon, with a tall building of great dark screens and a white castle above it on nothing at all. Xemnas waited at the top of the castle. Beyond a door the worlds themselves opened lay a white nothing with a grey floor, where Sora and Riku fought Xemnas for the last time.
The dark shore. A beach of black sand and blue rocks under great broken arches, with a cold pale light far out over the water like a sun that gives no warmth. Sora and Riku washed up there after Xemnas, and a letter in a bottle found them.
The door to the light. What Sora had been looking for since the end of his first journey. Riku's answer, tapping Sora's chest: "This." It's always closer than you think.
Characters and where they stand
Sora. Woke from a year's sleep with Donald and Goofy and set out again to find Riku and Kairi. He learned that the Keyblade he wielded was feeding the Organization's Kingdom Hearts, and that his Nobody had lived a whole life without him. He found Riku wearing Ansem's face and knew him anyway. With Riku he destroyed Xemnas, and he came home through the door to the light. He is home on the islands with Kairi, Riku, Donald, Goofy and the king. A letter from the king has just arrived.
Riku. Spent the year in the dark, wearing Ansem's face, helping Sora from the shadows and making Mickey promise Sora would never find out what happened to him. He brought Roxas to DiZ so Sora could wake. The blast of Ansem the Wise's machine gave him his own form back. On the dark shore he admitted he had been jealous of Sora. He is home.
Kairi. Was waiting in Twilight Town when Axel took her, escaped him, and was caught by Saïx. Naminé freed her from her cell, and Riku gave her a Keyblade of her own. She fought beside them to the end: "From now on, wherever one of us goes, the other follows." Naminé is inside her now. She is home with Sora, and there is a new drawing on the wall of the Secret Place: her, giving him a paopu fruit.
Donald Duck and Goofy. Back on the road with Sora, and just as unwilling to be left behind. Goofy took a boulder meant for the king and lay still long enough to frighten everyone, then got up: "I get bumped on the head all the time." Both are home with Sora.
King Mickey. Travelling from world to world fighting the Heartless and hunting for the answer to the Organization. He kept Riku's secret, found Ansem the Wise again, and was there at the end. He is home, and he has sent a letter.
Roxas. Woke into a false summer in a false town, and slowly remembered a real year he had lived. He learned he was never supposed to exist, and was furious about it. He fought his way to Sora and joined him. "Sora will find the answer we're looking for. I know he will. Because he's me." He is part of Sora now, and he and Naminé can meet again whenever Sora and Kairi are together.
Naminé. Finished putting Sora's memories back, told Roxas the truth, and was nearly disposed of for her trouble. She freed Kairi, opened the way home, and joined Kairi as Roxas joined Sora. "So, we can be together again!"
Ansem the Wise. The man called DiZ. He once ruled Hollow Bastion, was erased from his world by his own apprentices, and spent years consumed by revenge. He used Riku, Naminé and Roxas to that end, and came to regret it. He tried to encode Kingdom Hearts as data and knew he might not survive it. He named his apprentice's Nobody to his face, apologised to Roxas, said farewell to Mickey, and was caught in the machine's explosion.
Axel. Ordered to bring Roxas back or be rid of him, he could do neither. He kidnapped Kairi and lost her, then turned against the Organization. He used everything he was to clear Sora's way and faded, saying that Roxas was the only one he liked, and that Sora made him feel the same. At the end, what remained of Roxas met him again on the clock tower.
Xemnas. The Superior of Organization XIII and Xehanort's Nobody: calm, grandiose, and certain that hearts are power. He took Kairi to make Sora collect hearts for him. He fought Sora and Riku in armour, with the weapons of his fallen Organization, and was destroyed in the white nothing beyond the door: "Curses. Keyblade."
Saïx. Xemnas's cold right hand, who kept Kairi and waited impatiently to "end this charade." Sora destroyed him, and he reached for Kingdom Hearts as he went: "Where is my heart?"
Luxord. The gambler, who split Sora from his friends with his cards and lost to him alone. Like others in the castle, he called Sora "Roxas" as he faded.
Maleficent. Brought back by a memory. She tried to take the Cornerstone of Light, and she claimed Kingdom Hearts as her own dominion. She saved Sora and his friends from Xemnas once, and she stayed behind in the Organization's castle with Pete to fight its Heartless, promising the castle would be hers.
Pete. Blustering, and loyal to Maleficent. Once, long ago, he captained a steamboat. He is with Maleficent in the Organization's castle, delighted by the fight.
Yen Sid. The King's teacher, the sorcerer in the tower who explained Heartless and Nobodies to Sora and sent him on his way: "Everyone is waiting."
Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. The three good fairies, who argued about colours and made Sora new clothes. When a raven brought them Maleficent's cloak, they could not help remembering her, and remembering was enough to bring her back.
Queen Minnie. Held the castle while Mickey was away, and sent Sora to Merlin and into the past to save the Cornerstone of Light.
Tron. A security program in Ansem the Wise's computer, who helped Sora against the Master Control Program because something in his code commands him to do what is right. He changed the password so the MCP could not use it, and stayed behind in the system.
Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid and Merlin. The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, rebuilding the town to what it used to be. Leon fought the Heartless and Nobodies in the ravine beside Cloud, a tall swordsman with spiky blond hair.
Hayner, Pence and Olette. The real friends of the real Twilight Town, who worked out that the mansion led somewhere else, and said goodbye to a boy they had never met. He cried without knowing why.
Xigbar. The Organization member with the eyepatch and the guns, who laughed at Sora in Hollow Bastion, said Sora looked at him the same way someone else used to, and called Sora "Roxas." He compared Sora to "the others" and said he wasn't half the hero they were. Sora defeated him in the castle.
Questions
What happened to Ansem the Wise when his machine exploded?
Who was the stranger in the black coat who asked Roxas, "Can you feel Sora?"
Who were "the others" Xigbar said Sora wasn't half the hero of?
Who was the hooded figure Kairi glimpsed in the corridor of darkness?
With his Heartless and his Nobody both destroyed, what has become of Xehanort?
Do Nobodies really have no hearts at all?
Will Maleficent and Pete take the Organization's castle?
What does the king's letter say?
Fun facts
Built again from nothing. The game's engine was rebuilt from scratch, and none of the first game's character animations were reused, so Sora's new attacks could show how much he had grown.
An early pick. Space Paranoids, the world inside Ansem's computer, was one of the very first worlds chosen for the game.
More Mickey. Before the sequel could really begin, Nomura needed Disney's permission to use Mickey Mouse more throughout the series.
Seeded by a secret. The first game's secret ending was planted as a set of ideas for a sequel. Writer Kazushige Nojima worked its cryptic lines into this game's story.
Ideas held over. The transformations and the new battle commands were ideas Nomura already had while making the first game. Kingdom Hearts II came out in Japan on December 22, 2005.